The best cleaning products for upholstered furniture - TOP 10 most effective products

Each house has at least one set of upholstered furniture. In rare cases, it serves well for many years and does not need cleaning. The presence of children, pets, as well as the habit of household members to eat while sitting in an easy chair inevitably adds stains to the upholstery. Simple daily cleaning activities cannot get rid of such contaminants. A deeper cleaning using special products is required.

Some people use removable covers for upholstered furniture, washing them periodically in an automatic machine. But this does not help with all stains. Dust, abundant liquid pollution, and animal traces can only be thoroughly treated with chemicals. The best option for cleaning surfaces at home is cleaning with special liquids. When choosing, they are guided by the quality of the material, the intensity of contamination, and safety. Before you start cleaning, you should conduct a test on a small area to make sure that the method is suitable for the item. The most effective of them are presented below in our rating of upholstery cleaning products.

Simple rules

Despite the simplicity of the recipes, home cleaning has its own subtleties. Rules to help avoid unpleasant surprises:

1. Before dealing with stains on your sofa, vacuum the upholstery.
2. It is better to cover the fittings with film.
3. The floor near the sofa is covered with oilcloth or an old sheet.
4. You can avoid streaks by applying the composition to the entire surface.
5. Detergents containing chlorine are prohibited.
6. Light upholstery should only be cleaned with a white cloth.

To remove cleaning compounds, use thoroughly wrung out rags and sponges and slightly damp brushes. If the sofa gets very wet, there is a high risk of mold forming in the filling.

How to eliminate bad odor

Some stains leave no visible traces, just an odor. It appears if the sofa is old and has not been cleaned for a long time. The easiest way to get rid of it is to use special stain removers. They usually have a fresh, pleasant aroma. But well-known folk methods are also suitable for removing odor:

1. Dilute 2 tablespoons of vinegar in 1 liter of water. The solution gets rid of beer and juice odors. Soak a rag in it and blot the stain.
2. Helps remove soda odor. It needs to be scattered over the contaminated surface and collected with a vacuum cleaner after half an hour.
3. The most difficult thing to remove is the smell of urine. Solutions of vinegar, potassium permanganate, and citric acid can help. If the upholstery is dark, you need to dilute 20 drops of iodine in a liter of water. If all else fails, an integrated approach is recommended: moisten the stain with vinegar, then sprinkle with baking soda, and spray a 1:1 solution of hydrogen peroxide and water on top. Foam forms. You need to wait until it dries and clean it with a (soft) brush.

To prevent an unpleasant odor from forming on upholstered furniture, it is important to remove any stains immediately.

Baking soda will help get rid of unpleasant odors

You can remove the smell of urine using a solution of vinegar, potassium permanganate or citric acid.

Surface preparation

Before you start cleaning your sofa at home, you need to do the following:

• Decide on the type of detergent. What is suitable for leather furniture is sometimes not recommended for use on models with fabric upholstery and vice versa.

This is the most important point; not only the result of home cleaning, but also the safety of the sofa surface will depend on it, so when choosing a product (improvised or industrial), strictly follow the recommendations for its use.

• Thoroughly vacuum the fabric surface or wipe with a soft cloth if the sofa is made of genuine leather or substitutes. This stage should never be skipped, since by ignoring it, you can add dirty stains to the existing stains, which will then be problematic to remove from light-colored furniture.
• Pre-treat existing stains with special products. If the sofa does not have pronounced stains, then you can immediately begin cleaning with the chosen product.

Thus, in order to clean the sofa without streaks, you need to choose the right product that will not damage the surface and tidy up the upholstery.

Leather sofas and microfiber models are the most resistant to stains and streaks and are easy to care for, unlike capricious materials such as jacquard or tapestry.

Some upholstery is specially impregnated with compounds that repel dirt and thereby make the furniture easier to care for.

What can happen when removing a stain using “chemistry”

Materials, stains and products are “bundles” of chemicals. When interacting, these substances may react (or may not).

In the absence of a chemical reaction, nothing will happen, but in its presence, different consequences will be observed:

► The stain will disappear, the material will not be damaged.

► The stain will be firmly fixed, the material will not be damaged.

► The stain will dissolve, but the fibers of the fabric will be damaged.

► The stain will not dissolve and the upholstery will be damaged.

Sofa after successful dry cleaning

Some substances in stain removers and “folk” remedies negatively affect certain upholstery materials of sofas and armchairs - they damage fibers and/or react with dyes. For example, acetone can dissolve synthetic fibers and discolor fabric.

Order dry cleaning of a sofa in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region
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Folk remedies for cleaning furniture upholstery

So, now let’s look at effective means for cleaning upholstery, which cost a very small amount of money, since in order to save money they were invented by people themselves. At the same time, their effectiveness is practically not inferior to industrially produced household products. Let's look at the most effective recipes.

The effectiveness of folk remedies sometimes even exceeds that of household chemicals

Recipe No. 1 - a powerful cleaning product with a simple composition

So, to clean furniture upholstery for fabric, you can prepare a special composition, which will include

• a teaspoon of Feri or other dishwashing liquid;
• a spoonful of vinegar essence;
• a cup of heated water;
• a teaspoon of ordinary soda.

Mix all the ingredients in a larger container so that the foam has room to release.

That's all. You will need to work with this composition using a clean sponge (to apply the product), as well as an absorbent cotton towel (to remove any remaining product).

Please note: you need to mix all of the listed products in a basin, and immediately shortly before using the homemade composition, since when soda and vinegar essence come into contact, a powerful release of carbon dioxide will occur, and the accompanying formation of foam, which is what we need to use for work with stains on the upholstery.

We need to use this rich cleansing foam to remove dirt.

Recipe No. 2 – salt water

A very effective way to remove tea and coffee stains is salt water. It's simple to prepare: take a bowl of water and generously salt it until the solution becomes very salty indeed. You will need to treat the sofa in the area of ​​contamination with this liquid, and after the wetted area has dried, vacuum the upholstery.

Salt water is a good upholstery cleaner, and most importantly, it’s natural.

Please note: salt, by itself, also works extremely effectively as a stain remover, however, it only shows a clear result on fresh stains. So, for example, if you spill wine on the upholstery, you can immediately pour a thick layer of salt on it, and it will absorb all the liquid, leaving only minor traces on the sofa that you can remove by other means.

In its pure form, salt works well to remove red wine from fabric surfaces.

Recipe No. 3 - alcohol solution

Another effective remedy is an alcohol solution. It can be prepared by mixing:

• 5 tablespoons of pure alcohol;
• 200 milliliters of water.

You will need to moisten a sponge in this liquid and treat the stains with it.

Alcohol or vodka with water perfectly cleans stains that are ingrained into the upholstery.

Please note: since alcohol has not been sold in its pure form for a long time, if you, of course, do not have any reserves left, replace the required element in the recipe with vodka. However, you need to take into account that vodka is also an already diluted liquid, so the proportions will change somewhat, that is, you will need to take more vodka and less water.

Types of sofa cleaning products

Household chemicals

First, let's look at the category that is the most popular. We are talking about widely used products – household chemicals, the advantages of which include:

• affordable price;
• sufficient efficiency;
• quick results.

You can find a wide variety of cleaning products on store shelves.

Of course, there are a huge number of products in the world that are actually capable of cleaning a sofa from dirt as quickly and efficiently as possible, however, we will present you with a selection of only those that occupy the first positions in the rating compiled by our compatriots. So let's get started.

"The bugs are quiet"

This upholstery cleaner comes in spray form. In many online ratings compiled from reviews of network users submitted by ordinary people, this tool ranks almost first among all available options.

The features of this spray include:

• effective removal of stubborn stains;
• complete removal of traces of biological fluid of people and animals (blood, urine, feces, pus, etc.);
• Possibility of use on the entire surface of the upholstery at the same time;
• restoration of fabric color;
• complete removal of unpleasant odors;
• destruction of bacterial microflora and other harmful microorganisms.

A very effective, but very expensive Israeli product for cleaning sofa upholstery

Another advantage of this spray is its neutral effect on the non-fabric elements of some sofas, that is:

• paintwork;
• rubber;
• wood;
• plastic, etc.

One cannot help but be pleased with one more positive performance characteristic of the product: it does not emit any pungent odors, and the subtle aroma emanating from it is even pleasant.

However, this Israeli product also has disadvantages. As you know, the more effectively a product works, the more likely it is to:

• more dangerous;
• expensive.

You can buy this product in almost any store.

This statement is relevant for the spray in question, therefore, when buying it, prepare to empty your wallet, as well as to work in a full set of protective equipment.

"Vanish"

This stain remover is known to every housewife and every owner of their home, as it works really effectively, and has been one of the leaders in the domestic market for decades.

The required product equally effectively removes old stains from sofa upholstery:

• coffee;
• blood;
• ink, etc.

Vanish

Thanks to its special formula, due to oxygen saturation, contaminated surfaces are really quickly cleaned of stubborn pigment.

The advantages of this product also include the fact that it does not contain chlorine or other potent substances, and therefore it is practically harmless to humans.

Please note: this stain remover is not intended for cleaning delicate textiles such as:

• wool;
• silk;
• brocade;
• velvet.

But it copes with ordinary sofa upholstery with a bang.

The oxygen form “Vanish” allows you to quickly and effectively remove dirt from upholstered furniture

How to clean a sofa with Vanish

So, let's look at how to properly use Vanish to clean a dirty sofa.

Step No. 1 – preparatory process

Before you start applying the product, you need to prepare the surface of the sofa for washing by vacuuming it thoroughly. The fact is that the dust that settles in the upholstery will form streaks when wet and will eat into the fabric even more strongly, therefore, it is better, of course, to remove it immediately.

Here you can use, for example:

• vacuum cleaner;
• a wet sheet placed on the sofa and a beater;
• other methods of dust removal known to you.

Having completed the preliminary cleaning, we proceed to the next stage.

First you need to prepare to apply the product and vacuum the sofa

Step No. 2 – use the product

Apply the product to the upholstery. Depending on the form in which you purchased it (spray, shampoo, foam), the application method will vary. Check the instructions and do everything as written inside it. Rub the application area with a sponge or a special upholstery brush.

After application, look at the instructions again. From it you will find out how long you will need to wait for the stains that have become embedded in the upholstery to come off.

Apply Vanish to the sofa and rub the stubborn stain

Step No. 3 - wash off the product

At the end of a certain period of time, wash the product off the surface of the sofa with a damp cloth, or remove any remaining residue in another way, also indicated in the instructions included with the product. Check if the cleaning has the expected effect. If the answer is positive, then remove the product, and if negative, then try re-cleaning.

When finished, remove the product with a special cloth.

"Tuba"

Tuba cleaning foam, made in Germany, not only costs quite reasonably (around 300 rubles), but also works very effectively. It was specially designed for quick and dry cleaning of upholstered furniture, as its manufacturer claims.

The main advantage of “Tube” is, of course, that it protects the surface of the sofa from getting wet, which entails the flow of dirt into its deeper layers.

This foam for cleaning sofa surfaces works effectively and is inexpensive

Tube foam is suitable for both synthetic and natural materials. By the way, with the help of this product you can safely remove hair left by a shedding dog or cat from the sofa.

Why is more than 90% of advice from the Internet evil?

In most cases, events develop according to the standard pattern:

→ something was spilled on the sofa or contamination was accidentally discovered,

→ Googled “how to remove coffee, wine or juice stains”

→ opened the first article with tips in search engine results,

→ did everything according to the instructions,

→ received a zero or negative result